The NeoPagans are the fastest growing family of religions in the U.S. and you made no mention of them. Wicca, Druidism, Asatru, Hellinic Reconstructionism and other NeoPagan religions are all going rapidly. They demand caring for the earth, men and women as equals and eliminating poverty. We are growing rapidly among the young.

That could be because in 2004, the estimated total for that 'family' was about 400,000 or a whopping 0.1% according to ARIS. Pew Research figures in 2007 is roughly the same 0.4 for all new-age religions combined, or 0.3 for all other world religions not categorized. Not really a force to be reckoned with as a voting bloc now is it?

<link>

Could also be that the research being discussed in that story is titled "Twelve Tribes: Percentage of 2004 Voters", so please explain where the 'family' fits in with those tribes exactly?

And lastly, it's a dang story from April 2006 for goodness sake.

If I take up Hellenic Reconstructionism, do I get to take the Iliad literally? Because that would be awesome.

What about Helevanic Reconstructionism, where I get to take Heleva, repeatedly...err I mean literally :)

I initially misread your post as asking about Helveticanic Reconstructionism which, presumably, would be being very careful to use Helvetica rather than Arial.

Wouldn't that be Helveticanic contructionism, reconstruction would be changing Helvetica to be a bigger force for the greater good and all that? Though how a font could be put into action...maybe only well thought out positions and papers would be allowed to use Helvetica so we could instantly discern if it's O'Reilly or Roland Martin laden crap vs a well thought out argument or point for discussion.

That could have some merit

From now on, it will be required that the following types of content must be printed in Comic Sans:

• Arguments for Intelligent Design
• Claims that vaccines cause autism
• Just about anything said on any partisan political blog, ever, whether Powerline-ish or DailyKos-ish
• Any mention of quantum physics in the context of New Age religion and/or alternative medicine
• Et cetery
  

anxiousmofo:

From now on, it will be required that the following types of content must be printed in Comic Sans:

• Arguments for Intelligent Design
• Claims that vaccines cause autism
• Just about anything said on any partisan political blog, ever, whether Powerline-ish or DailyKos-ish
• Any mention of quantum physics in the context of New Age religion and/or alternative medicine
• Et cetery

LOL. The anti-vaccine crowd is up in arms because of a recent outbreak of measles in a group of non-vaccinating youth. MSNBC did a few stories - one about the outbreak and another about how vaccinating parents deal with parents/children who are against vaccination. The comments to that second article are MINDBLOWING. <link>

I don't often yell at my laptop (really!), but WOW, I thought the ID crowd had cornered the market on dishonesty and doublespeak - the anti-vacciners have them beat hands down.

(Also, I think we could write a simple script that would automatically Comic Sansify any statement beginning with: "So, I read on Drudge yesterday..." My MIL would spend the rest of her life talking in Comic Sans)

Or maybe one is actually trying to reconstruct ancient Swiss practices? Sorry, I probably should get out more....

As opposed to parents like me who want to see the number of vaccines paired down. We don't *really* know where the safety threshold is in terms of number of vaccines and it seems to me that it is probably a good idea to reduce the number. Heck, I only let my children get *required* vaccines in early childhood. Ones that are standard but not required by the school system are not gotten. That seems to me to be the best way forward. This means DPT and MMR, but not Hepatitis A (which is a short-term vaccine anyway) or chicken pox.

Of course exceptions made for travel etc. Going some places may warrant getting the Hep A vaccine. And after early childhood, maybe chicken pox vaccine might be ok.

einhverfr:

As opposed to parents like me who want to see the number of vaccines paired down. We don't *really* know where the safety threshold is in terms of number of vaccines and it seems to me that it is probably a good idea to reduce the number. Heck, I only let my children get *required* vaccines in early childhood. Ones that are standard but not required by the school system are not gotten. That seems to me to be the best way forward. This means DPT and MMR, but not Hepatitis A (which is a short-term vaccine anyway) or chicken pox.

I guess I don't care about efforts to get docs to spread the vaccines out since there is no added risk to the public (although there doesn't appear to be any proof that there is a greater risk giving them together), but it's suicide to allow large segments of the population to go unvaccinated.

The benefits of vaccination are plainly obvious while the "dangers" are unsurprisingly difficult to tease out.

For some diseases that is correct. I am not sure it is always the case, however. For example, how is it suicide for large portions of the population to go unvaccinated against chicken pox? Sure adults get more sick (my wife has had chicken pox three times, twice as an adult) but "suicide" seems to be a bit of an overstatement. Same with influenza vaccines.

What happened to a calm, rational, case-by-case look at things>

The Bible prdicts that the olde gods would be around in the last days.

Dd

The benefits of vaccination are plainly obvious while the "dangers" are unsurprisingly difficult to tease out.

Yes. Exactly. At one point I went to the CDC web site to read up on the symptoms of the diseases which vaccinations prevent and enumerated some of these symptoms to friends of mine who had read one too many issues of Mothering magazine, and, for some reason, those were just not as frightening as the vague dangers of vaccines. I do not get it.

(Listing the risks of chickenpox in kids with eczema, e.g., my daughter, was enough to get my wife to vaccinate my daughter, something she was on the fence about.)